Tag Archives: Barry Zito

The Reds played 18 innings of baseball yesterday, and I made sure to see all of them. Nothing especially great happened in the second game after another big win in the first. The Reds left 12 men on base and squandered opportunities all (late) night long.

In the first game, the Reds rolled to another victory with Devin Mesoraco, Shin-soo Choo, and Zach Cozart all going yard. Cozart had four hits in the game and Tony Cingrani did his thing to improve to 4-1.

It would have been a huge boost to the Reds to win two games in one day yesterday, and again with every opportunity in the world to truly get on a roll, the 2013 Reds did what they have done so often this season. They teased and they teased and they teased some more.

When I returned home from my buddy’s house and pulled in my driveway it was almost 2:30 AM and the Reds had let me down. My wife had texted just minutes earlier that she was locking the door if I didn’t come home immediately. Times are good when it’s summer, and you’re 30, and there’s late-night baseball on.

The San Francisco Giants caught lightning in a bottle for the second time in three years last season in winning the World Series. They parlayed a ragamuffin lineup and a makeshift pitching staff with a couple aging former stars into a title. They’ve been spoiled. There were about a four other teams last year that entered the postseason looking better on paper than the Giants.

And I’ll admit, I’ve got a little bit of a sore spot because they took the title that should have belonged to my Cincinnati Reds. At least, the NL title should have belonged to Cincinnati. We had them down two games to zero and heading back to Cincinnati for three. And then it all fell apart. Or it all came together if you’re looking at it from the San Francisco viewpoint.

They had a quiet, Giants-like offseason. They’ll be there all season long, pesky and ready to slip in and steal another title that should belong to another team and another fan base.

Major offseason moves:

Re-signed Angel Pagan to a 4-year, $40 million dollar contract

Re-signed Marco Scutaro to a 3-year, $20 million dollar contract

Re-signed Santiago Casilla to a 3-year, $15 million dollar contract

Re-signed Jeremy Affeldt to a 3-year, $18 million dollar contract

Really, the Giants offseason consisted of retention of the key components of their title run in 2012. There are few teams in baseball that underwent less change than the Giants this past offseason. This roster of familiar faces will remain competitive but will fail to capture another championship in 2013. No one can be that lucky.